L'agrandissement des installations du Collège de France sous la monarchie de Juillet

Abstract

"Enlarging the premises of the College de France in the reign of Louis Philippe", by Olivier Lefranc. As a very old institution of higher education and higher research, the College de France did not get significant facilities until the late 18th Century. The great architect Chalgrin had been commissioned by Louis XV to design a proper building between 1774 and 1778, but it had not been sturdily built and thus had almost fallen into ruin by 1830. It was located in the heart of the Paris Quartier Latin, hemmed into a too dense and unhealthy urban area down the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, where flood caused considérable damage to the floors and walls. Renovating and enlarging the previous buildings was budgeted by the successive governments under the rule of Louis-Philippe, first spurred on by Adolphe Thiers from 1833 to 1841 ; thus the surface area was unprecedentedly doubled and several neigh bouring houses were bought to make way for the building. The enlarged building is in a severe style as Chalgrin had intended, that was proper for a state-approved scientific institution, and Classical options are quite respected. Chalgrin first made these choices and Lebas, followed by Letarouilly who had it completed, stuck to this initial design.